Lessons From Leaven (by Rich Robinson with Jews For Jesus)

Introduction: The word “leaven” (chametz,) actually refers to the final product that contains leaven, such as leavened bread. Leaven per se is called se’or. However, chametz (can be pronounced khum-its or kha-mets) is the common term used for leavened bread or other similar items containing yeast.

While leaven is often used as a negative symbol, some instances in which leaven is mentioned have a neutral or even a positive connotation.

Positive:

Neutral:

Negative:

1). Much more common is Jesus’ use of leaven as a symbol of corruption, specifically of false teaching and hypocrisy (Matthew 16:6, Mark 8:15, Luke 12:1). Jesus in fact explicitly explains this meaning in Matthew 16:12.

2). Paul uses leaven more broadly as a symbol of “malice and wickedness” in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. Here he combines the idea of leaven as sin with the idea of its rapid and thoroughgoing spread, as he also does in Galatians 5:9. The Corinthians passage is of particular theological import as it points to Passover, and to Jesus as the Passover Lamb. Whereas the command to purge leaven from the home for Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread was, in the Old Testament, a reminder of how the Exodus occurred, the New Testament now adds the symbolism of sin, and the fact that because of Jesus, we need no longer be under sin's permeating influence.

1). As in the New Testament, the rabbis also use leaven as a symbol of evil and human corruption. In the Talmud (first millennium A.D.) Rabbi Alexandri habitually ended his prayers by saying, “Sovereign of the Universe, it is full known well to Thee that our will is to perform Thy will, and what prevents us? The yeast in the dough…” The standard edition, the Soncino Talmud, explains the expression “yeast in the dough” as meaning “the evil impulse, which causes a ferment in the heart."(5)

Likewise the Talmud describes Cyrus as having “degenerated”—footnoted “Lit., ‘fermented,’ a metaphor either from wine turning to vinegar or from flour becoming leaven. The ‘evil imagination’ is often compared by the Sages to a ‘leaven."'(6)

2). In medieval times and beyond, we find the same symbolism. For example, from the 18th and 19th centuries:

“We stress the thorough search for and elimination of leaven on the eve of Passover because leaven symbolizes the Evil Urge, which we must search out in all the recesses of our mind, and of which even a tiny bit may become disastrous."(7)

“No leaven be seen in thee, neither . . . in all thy borders [Exod. 13.7]. Let nothing stale or sour be seen in you, and you will not see it in others."(8)

One feature of the traditional Passover is searching out all leaven in the home, after which it is burnt. In the ritual of Sephardic Jews (9) the prayer following the burning of leaven includes this: “Just as we did remove chametz from our homes and burned it, so we pray that we should be able to remove evil inclinations from within us always."(10)

Conclusion:

Leaven is used as a symbol in the Bible as well as in rabbinic writings. It is used to represent human evil and corruption, and, perhaps less often, it represents the complete or permeating effect of a transforming agent. Regarding its negative usage, one commentator remarks that “yeast was an appropriate metaphor for something that spreads; today we might employ the negative image of cancer."(11)

On Passover, the use of unleavened bread reminds us of the haste with which the Israelites had to leave Egypt, but especially in light of Paul’s usage in 1 Corinthians 5, it reminds us of the need to cleanse ourselves of sin, and the fact that Y’shua was Himself sinless.

Finally, as leaven sometimes has a more positive symbolism, we can remind ourselves the rest of the year—when leavened bread is normally eaten—that the Kingdom of God spreads throughout the world even as leaven spreads.

Thus both good and evil tend to spread, rapidly and completely. Both aspects are nicely summed up in the rabbinic proverbs, “Woe to the wicked, woe to his neighbor,” and “Happy the righteous, happy his neighbor."(12)